BEIRUT – I’ve seen the streets of Beirut empty before, during wars when the shells were falling and under curfews after various bouts of fighting.
But it is the silence that is getting to me. On the streets, at the supermarket, and even as people stand in line (one meter apart) outside banks and grocery stores, no one speaks.
It seems like every single person is wearing a mask and gloves, even those inside their cars, driving alone. Exactly how did we get here, and how will we get out?
It’s the same question everyone is asking, bewildered at the sea change that has come over our lives. It was only weeks earlier that my colleagues and I were covering massive anti-government protests in a square just down the road from our office.